What is a halley's comet orbit like?

Answer 1

All orbits are ellipses. Some orbits, like the orbit of the Earth around the Sun, are almost (but not quite) circular. Other objects, like the Moon or Mars, have orbits that are more distinctly oval shaped.

Comets have elliptical orbits with very high eccentricity; they are stretched so that they come quite close to the Sun, but still go dozens or hundreds of AU away. Some comets are less severely eccentric. Halley's Comet, for example, only goes out to about 30AU with a period of 76 years, while Comet Hale-Bopp has a period of closer to 2200 years.

Answer 2

The orbits of comets are different from those of planets because they are highly elliptical. A comet's orbit takes it very close to the sun and then far away again whereas a planet's orbit is a more round shape.

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Answer 3

Their compositions are different, comets tend to contain more ice, like dirty snowballs, while asteroids are more rocky. Asteroids are found in more regular orbits, while comets have more eccentric orbits and come from much further out in the solar system.

Answer 4

"A" halley's comet is wrong - this is not a category of comets, there is one specific comet with that name.Halley's Comet - and in fact most comets - have very excentric orbits, meaning the shape is an elongated elipse.

Answer 5

All comet orbits are ellipses.

Very rarely a comet will come in from completely outside of the solar system and never come back again; these are called "parabolic trajectories", but these aren't actually orbits - since the comet doesn't follow the same path again.

Answer 6

An asteroids orbit is often in an asteroid belt where as a comet is able to change its course when it approaches a planet. An asteroid can not do this. An asteroids orbit is often in an asteroid belt where as a comet is able to change its course when it approaches a planet. An asteroid can not do this. An asteroids orbit is often in an asteroid belt where as a comet is able to change its course when it approaches a planet. An asteroid can not do this.

Answer 7

A periodic comet ... that's seen from Earth more than once ... is in an elliptical orbit.

A comet that sails through the solar system and leaves, seen from Earth only once,

is in a hyperbolic orbit.

Answer 8

Comet's orbits are usually highly elliptical, with a much higher eccentricity than the orbit of most planets. Additionally comet's orbits aren't in the plane of the ecliptic -- they don't remain in the Zodiac and can be found anywhere in the sky.

Answer 9

Comets are such small objects that it is unlikely that anything else will orbit a comet. However, it is not impossible - two comets might orbit one another, or some other small object (a meteorite or small asteroid) might orbit a comet. I don't know whether any such orbiting object has actually been discovered.

Answer 10

All orbits are elliptical, no matter what kind of object it is. For comets, the orbits are VERY elliptical.